I was walking through Pike's Market in Seattle on Wednesday and went over to Beechers to pick up some Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam Triple Cream for a Ridge Geyserville vetical tomorrow night. Noticed they had a Cypress Grove Humboldt Fog wheel sitting there and I immediately thought of the Fall '04 Turley mailer which talked about pairing it with the Delinquent. God knows I've been staring at the bottle in the fridge, so I packed up the cheese and flew home.

Tonight, the wife and I sat in front of the TV set and cracked open (quite literally - the damn wax seal on this bottle was a real pain to open) a bottle of the 2001 Turley Delinquent and went to work on the cheese plate. The wine itself was nothing short of fantastic. Thick and syrupy, the Delinquent was a high octane experience. The wine was packed with fruit, with a ripe cherry flavor overpowering the 20% alcohol content. The cheese pairing was perfect and this bottle proved that the anticipation and experience can make a good bottle of wine taste great. We finished off with a little Ghiradeli chocolate (read DavidN's note on the 98, so I had to try it) and waved goodbye to the last few drops.

I don't really know if I'd give a numerical rating. 90? 92? 95? You fill in the blank. In all honesty, my number isn't going to mean a whole hell of a lot to you, anyways. I can tell you it was a fantastic bottle on a Friday night, and my wife and I will remember sitting around in sweats and enjoying it for quite a while.

Drew: very nice. This is one of my fav North American sweeties. Glad you enjoyed!

I hope you're going to have a 1997 in that vertical.

Drew, very inspirational post. I have some Cypress Grove Humboldt Fog (love this cheese) and bottle of delinquent. I think I know what our agenda is this evening. Do you think it would benefit from breathing, or just crack and pour?

Randy, I had never had humboldt fog before and I'm hooked now! I pulled the cork about 30 minutes before we started drinking, but that was more a result of having to chase my daughter down, find her two dolls, tuck her in, etc. I thought it was great from the first sip, but I have to be honest and say I don't have a lot of experience drinking dessert wines, so I don't have much to compare it to, save Justin Obtuse.

Board-O, the Geyeserville tasting is 96-02. Given 7 bottles for 12 people, I'm bringing champagne (95 Piper Heidseik, supposed to be good) and someone else is bringing a dessert wine to ensure that people stumble home.

DREW - Humboldt Fog is Mr. Winetex's favorite cheese these days. Our beverage of choice is usually bubbly.

Thanks for another nice note. For someone in Portland you sure spend a lot of time in Seattle. When I lived in Seattle I did it the other way around.

Humboldt Fog is seriously great cheese. I love the stuff.

I work in the Portland office of a Seattle based firm, so I get summoned by the mothership on a bi-weekly basis. Actually works out well this way, because there is more to do in Seattle and god knows I rarely leave the house when I'm home.